Well we couldn't agree on the terms of "male" characteristics so we didn't really get any debating done. The idea of "male" characteristics and "female" characteristics and making these generalizations created an uncomfortable environment for the debate. The tendencies that certain traits are more common in one of the two genders is a fairly common held belief. Ultimately, we should have defined both "male" characteristics and "leader" prior to the debate.
The traits that we listed on the board, gender association aside, all create a good leader. A good leader should posses decisiveness and a good work ethic, but it would also behoove those below the leader if the leader possessed compassion and participated emotionally in the tasks at hand. If you define the first two traits I listed (decisiveness and a good work ethic) as "male" then yes I believe that a leader should posses these qualities. If they (the traits) are merely human characteristics and have no gender affiliation then one doesn't need to posses "male" traits because the ideology of "male" traits doesn't exist.
I don't think we would ever amount to agreeing on what exactly is male or female characteristics. People will compare themselves to the characteristics listed from that study you mentioned and then disagree. For instance perhaps they were a man and felt they were not quite a decisive person, thus feeling the study to be inaccurate. To me that's single minded thinking, they are too busy thinking about themselves than what perhaps the majority may represent.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I understand the point of the study was to show the trends of specific behaviors between different sexes, and that the study was not saying all females and males behave a certain way.